Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Weeks 11 & 12

I'm not behind. Really. I'm actually still ahead, but I got distracted by a week off from work and didn't post anything. So catch up... here's my week 11 & 12 cards. And here are links to Claudine's Week 11 and Week 12 posts. Obviously I didn't really go with the theme at all... although my week 11 cards do involve snow.

The first one is simple - just acrylic paint and a quote from Tolkien. Notice the snow on the mountains and the trees... :-)

The second one is just silly and I love it. It speaks for itself.

Now on to week 12... These are two that I had made a few weeks ago so they have nothing to do with the week 12 theme. They are both acrylic paint... and the second one is another on the mesh background. 

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 10

Week 10 of the challenge is here. I have to admit that taking part in this has bumped up my creativity for a lot of things. I started working on a quilt a few weeks ago (it's been in progress for over 10 years - horrible, I know), I have multiple Christmas decoration projects underway, I've been doing random paintings on canvas, and I turned a book into a box a couple nights ago (it's not totally done, but it'll be awesome when it is). I am having so much fun and it feels good to be covered in glue and paint.

On to the cards. Claudine's cards for this week were totally whimsical and fun - see them here. Not remotely my style, but I figured I'd give it a shot and came up with this card. The background is watercolor with some doodles. The face is bits from a couple magazines and I drew the eyes/nose piece.

This second one the picture is from the book I destroyed the other day - it's got lots of fun little illustrations and this one fit my quote in a weird way. Background is watercolor pencil, watercolored.

Random Mixed Media

The other night I felt like doing something artsy. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I figured I'd experiment a little with some unfamiliar mediums. In October, I went to a painting thing at my Mom's church (like Cocktails and Canvas, but Cupcakes and Canvas instead). It was fun, but the painting just didn't turn out right. I thought about tweaking it but then I just went in a totally different direction.

And it was FUN!

Since I'm working on this altered playing card project, I've been wanting to find a way to put a quote on a card without stamping it directly, but also without all the extra white - I wanted it to be clear. I saw somewhere that you can stamp on tissue paper then use Mod Podge and the tissue paper kind of disappeared. So that's how this started. I stamped something and slapped it onto the canvas. And it worked! And then I got totally carried away and my original experiment is buried under everything just like the original painting.

I grabbed colored tissue paper out of my wrapping paper stash, cut it into squares and started gluing. Or Podging, as it were. I added some washi tape then sprayed a couple different colors of spray ink around. I've never used that tape before so I didn't realize that it wouldn't take color (possibly the brand I used? Or maybe all of them are like that?) So I took the tape off, then I glued on some lace from my fabric stash. I used some stencils and some gesso to add the squares, flowers, and swirlys. So here's what it looked like at that point.

The next day, I painted the gesso'd areas, added random acrylic paint, and added the words. Then I painted on the words too. It was fun... so I did a couple more, but I'll write about them later.

This is my finished result. If I stare at it just right I can see my original painting buried under there, but if you don't know, you might not see it. In person, it's a bit sparkly because some of the acrylics are metallic but it just doesn't show up right in pictures.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 9

For my week 9 cards from Claudine's challenge, I back tracked a little for technique and theme. Also, during the week off instead of playing catch up I got a bit ahead so I've got four more cards done already. I also had the chance to work on some quilting and other art projects so it was a good week. I should post some of that other stuff too...

Anyway, week 9 cards. This first one I used metallic acrylics for the background and left a spot of white space. White space is not something I normally do. I have the same problem doing Zentangle type stuff - I always try to fill every space but I'm learning that white space can have a purpose. The butterfly I drew and cut out then scored a bit between the wings and body so the wings could be raised off the card.

This second card I love. The background is all acrylic paint. The trees are too - I painted the trunks and leaves on card stock then cut them out. I had a blast doing the leaves - I cut around my paint as close as possible then did little snips to make them more palm tree like. Between the snips and the paint, the texture turned out great and I love the result.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 8

Week 8 of the Altered Art Playing Card Challenge and I'm still actively participating! That's a good sign, I think. Perhaps this is actually a project that I will finish. I'm horrible at finishing things... or I pick up a new hobby and go at it non-stop for a while and completely stop. I like doing these cards though because they're small and relatively easy to finish in one sitting.

Anyway, this first card is another I finished a couple weeks ago, but it fits pretty well with the theme of the week. Also, it's one of my favorites so far. The background is acrylic paint, the heart I cut out of cardstock and then painted with metallic acrylic. The road is lined with white gel pen.

On the second one I used a Recollections marker for the sky. Nothing fancy. The buildings I cut out of cardstock, added windows with a silver gel pen, and windows/doors on the houses with a black micron.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 7

This last week was a wee bit crazy so I'll be honest... I completed these cards a couple weeks ago. I got a little ahead of myself and figured I'd save them for a week without time or inspiration. Since they were done early I didn't use any of the cool techniques that Claudia used for week 7 - these are much more simple and not sea themed at all.

Both cards have the mesh in the background and both cards used alcohol inks for the main colors. I added detail in acrylic paint, micron pen, and white gel pen. Nothing too complicated but I think they turned out alright.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 6

This week Claudine did some really cute Halloween cards - here. But... I'm still sticking with my travel theme and I'm really bad at doing holidays. So... here are my cards for week 6.

This first one has the mesh background, I used alcohol inks for the main colors, then touches of acrylic, a sharpie, and a silver gel pen.

I LOVE this second one. I am generally a perfectionist when it comes to art and I had to let go of a lot over the last couple years to move on artistically. Once I accepted that I am just not the type to paint something that looks exactly real, it made things a lot easier and I'm enjoying the results. The background is acrylic paint and I just kind of smudged the darker green trees with a brush, the car was a stamp from Michaels with touch-up from a white gel pen and a black micron pen. The driver is a random sticker that I had in my collection.